Callum Gentleman is releasing a Killer and taking him on the road – and appropriately, given part of the song’s focus, appropriate in our post election times.

The song and video for Callum’s new single Blue Collar Killer are out now, with an 11-date New Zealand tour with his band September/October, after which he spends November touring Australia.

Callum Gentleman plays blues/folk noir with the odd dash of country. It’s Nick Cave meets The Smiths in a dark alley where they conspire to kidnap Bob Dylan and move to New Zealand. He’s played many gigs around the nation, performing shows with artists such as Tami Neilson, Marlon Williams, Tiny Ruins, Nadia Reid, Delaney Davidson, and The Eastern.

Mr. Gentleman is joined by henchmen Joel Vinsen (wide-screen guitar) and Sam Loveridge (back-alley violin) for the New Zealand leg of this tour. The trio will wind their way around the country, playing 11 shows from as far north as Whangarei (October 20th) down to Dunedin (October 6th).

They play in some of New Zealand’s most iconic venues, such as Leigh Sawmill (September 30th) and the Barrytown Hall (October 7th). This will be the first music gig held at the iconic Barrytown Hall since a noise control issue halted music at the venue earlier this year. After a show at the legendary Bunker in Auckland’s Devonport (another venue almost shut down earlier this year), Callum will take a solo set to Australia, starting with a gig at The Wesley Anne in Melbourne.

Blue Collar Killer is a dark folk tune, a live-set highlight with a Southern Gothic edge. The recording wedges Callum’s pulsing acoustic guitar in between a knife-edge violin (Sam Loveridge) and a shotgun electric guitar (Joel Vinsen) with the sultry Carmen Kilss on backing vocals. The track was recorded at The Lab Studio in Auckland with award-winning engineer Oliver Harmer, and mixed by Ryan Green.

While the song started life as an ode to a simple workingman with an unusual day job, Callum says it quickly moved on to something else entirely.

“The guy in the tune is your average workaday contract killer. He turns up to work, clocks in, ticks his clients off the to-do list, works some overtime to save up for a family holiday on the Gold Coast, clocks out, heads home for dinner, gets nagged at by his wife cos he’s late again. An ordinary guy, just with an extraordinary skill set,” explains Callum.

“Then my mum said, ‘Sounds like a song about John Key.’ Eureka! The Smiling Assassin has been lurking in the lyrics ever since. Although John was the original inspiration, Bill English will easily sub in, as will many of the candidates in any election.”

Check out the Blue Collar Killer single/video now, then head along to catch one of Callum Gentleman’s electrifying gigs.